Government lotteries are one of the world's major businesses. Billions of dollars in revenues are generated by lotteries in the states and U.S. protectorates.
During 1991, the states collected over 21 billion dollars in revenue from state lotteries. This equalled the combined income of America's five most profitable corporations. State lotteries have gained such popular acceptance that it is believed that the federal government may soon adopt a national lottery as a means for trimming its large budget deficits.
Large prizes, some of which exceed one million dollars, attract large numbers of players. Lottery prizes provide a means for ordinary citizens to acquire fortunes which prior to lotteries were inaccessible.
To date, over thirty states, two U.S. protectorates and some foreign countries operate lotteries. Lotteries exist in over thirty states, the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Sweden, France, Australia, Austria, Switzerland and Canada. The distribution of U.S. lotteries is shown in FIG. 36.
A large variation exists in the lotteries of states and foreign countries. By way of example, some weekly lotteries require a selection of five numbers whereas other weekly lotteries require a selection of six numbers. Moreover, there is a large variation in the size of the sets from which numbers are selected ranging from twenty-five to fifty-four numbers in weekly lotteries. Further, daily lotteries require selecting three or four numbers from the set of numbers ranging from 1 to 1000.
Although selecting lottery numbers is a simple task, many players prefer number generating devices, particularly when placing bets on many numbers.
One aspect of the current practice is that lottery number pickers are not adaptable to the large variations in daily and weekly lotteries. Another aspect of the current practice is that lottery number pickers are not available which can pick both daily and weekly lottery numbers. Another aspect of the current practice is that lottery number pickers are complex and expensive to manufacture.